Passage

I just read an article about the game's creator in a magazine... I highly recommend trying this out. It is a very unexpected game. Some sort of thoughtful game like this would be a wonderful entry into this year's uDG contest, and would be completely doable with the small resources of even a one-man team.

This is indeed a very peculiar little game. Though I can't really agree with skyhawk about the graphics or story, as the story is more of a statement, and the graphics, while very appropriate and stylistic, don't really stand on their own. It's just one of those games where the whole is really much, much more than the sum of its parts.

It's one of those games that spends all its time trying to make a statement about _________, and along the way, completely forgets that it's supposed to be fun.

I can appreciate what it's trying to say about, for instance, the inevitability of death, but honestly, I can point out that same symbolism in Space Invaders. Only difference is I'd put more than one quarter into Space Invaders.

JustinFic Wrote:It's one of those games that spends all its time trying to make a statement about _________, and along the way, completely forgets that it's supposed to be fun.

I can appreciate what it's trying to say about, for instance, the inevitability of death, but honestly, I can point out that same symbolism in Space Invaders. Only difference is I'd put more than one quarter into Space Invaders.

I don't think this game even pretends that it wants to be fun in a conventional sense.

And you can certainly interpret Space Invaders in all kinds of ways and find symbolism, even though it's just coincidental.

These two games are completely different, and judging one by only comparing it against the merits of the other is pointless.

My main question is why use a game to express concepts that can be much more effectively and efficiently expressed with language?

We use games to give the player the feeling of being in the "action" much better than say telling him "you are a secret agent that must infiltrate a base and free his captured friends!".

But i can express this game by saying "Every second you get older, you can try and achieve things in life, you can get a wife that will hinder you and whatever you do you're going to die" and there's not much left that playing the game will give you (except for the depressing music).

Najdorf Wrote:With music, pictures, video, games etc. you can most often express much more than with words.

I just mean this is not the case with this game, besides the "statements" it makes there's not much left, the game itself is unplayable.

I think perhaps the focus on the short length and very non-standard goal of the game is affecting your opinion.

I could probably say the same thing about a haiku poem... why would I limit myself to 5, 7, 5 form? I could say the same thing with a longer poem, or heck even a 100+ page book with many many words. However, the format of the haiku opens it up to a different type of interpretation, and therefore a different type of experience to the reader.

**SPOILER ALERT, do NOT read below this line if you have not yet played the game!**
Sure, the statements made in the game are pretty straightforward - just as some haikus meanings may be pretty straightforward - but the way the user experiences is unique. Living out an entire life, from young to dying of old age, is something I have never seen in electronic entertainment before.

The user who does not know what to expect, and has the experience of seeing "oh my, all of a sudden my little guy has gray hair, he aged really quickly," is having a different response and thought process than being told "you get old before you know it."

I could tell you "you will get old and get gray hair before you know it," or I could let you experience it. The effect it may have on you will be different.

The goal is different than a typical game, just like a dramatic movie has a very different goal than a comedy movie, or a 400 page novel has a different goal than a haiku poem.